Our planet is a beautiful place to live. That’s because we share this planet with gorgeous creatures. Recently, a diver name Kristian Laine has found a pink manta ray that is extremely rare.
Scroll down to see this gorgeous creature.
A diver named Kristian Laine stumbled upon a male manta ray like no other in the Great Barrier Reef
“At first, I saw a manta train of 7 manta rays around a bommie at Lady Elliot Island, and they were about 12 meters deep, so I waited for the right moment to hold my breath and dive down,” elaborated Kristian. “When I was eye level with the pink fish, I was looking through the viewfinder and locked eyes with it. Only when I fired my strobes to take a photo, I noticed its pink skin but had no idea there are any pink mantas in the world. I was confused and thought my strobes were broken or doing something weird.”
To everyone’s surprise, instead of the usual black and white, this manta ray was black and pink
It turns out this is Inspector Clouseau, the only known pink manta ray in the world with a skin gene mutation
“[The pink manta ray] was extremely calm. I remember looking into the huge fish eyes and it felt almost as if it was smiling (or, at least, very friendly). The whole interaction lasted about 20 to 30 minutes.” explained Kristian. “I dove down multiple times, not really realizing how special the rare animal really is but I accidentally timed my dives in a way that I managed to get about 5 good photos of it interacting in the manta train and chasing the female. I believe at times the pink manta was first or second in line to the female beating other males in order.”
It was first sighted back in 2015 by Ryan Jeffery and it is believed to be seen less than 10 times in total
Scientists believe that its pink skin is caused by a genetic mutation in its expression of melanin
“I didn’t know the pink ocean animal even existed, and as I mentioned, I just thought my strobes were playing up. It was only after the swim, onboard, that I have noticed it—I happened to look up a photo of the rare fish called Inspector Clouseau #900, and I realized that this manta had the same patterns like the one I interacted with and photographed. I immediately rushed back to check on my camera. You have no idea how far my jaw dropped when I realized what I had just witnessed and for so long and all by myself. It was a pretty special day for me.”
Here is a video of the rare pink manta ray posted on YouTube by Lady Elliot Island
